- Taiwan: Regime completes US tank deal as final Abrams shipment reaches port
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Taiwan has received its final shipment of US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks, completing a long-delayed order aimed at modernising the island’s ageing armoured forces. Considered among the world’s most powerful tanks, these vehicles are expected to bolster the island’s defence amid rising military pressure from Beijing. … The delivery completes Taiwan’s 2019 purchase of 108 tanks from the US as part of a package worth about NT$40.5 billion (US$1.29 billion), which also included M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles and heavy transporters.” (04/27/26)
- FL: DeSatanist unveils new gerrymander map
Source: CNN
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed a new map for US House districts that appears to show Republicans gaining an advantage in four seats now held by Democrats. His proposal, released one day before the Florida Legislature opens a special session, targets a Tampa-area district held by Rep. Kathy Castor as well as an Orlando-area district held by Rep. Darren Soto. It also redraws districts in South Florida for Republican advantage. It’s the latest salvo in a coast-to-coast redistricting fight that President Donald Trump kicked off last year when Texas drew new lines at his behest. Just last week, Virginia voters approved a referendum that could give Democrats better chances at four US House seats in the state.” (04/27/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/27/politics/desantis-proposes-new-us-house-map-florida
- Pope prays with Archbishop of Canterbury in historic encounter, vows dialogue
Source: Associated Press
“Pope Leo XIV prayed Monday in the Vatican with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, and vowed to keep working to overcome differences ‘no matter how intractable they may appear,’ in a historic meeting with the first female leader of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion. The encounter between Christianity’s two most famous religious figures would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, given the divisions between their two churches over women’s ordination in general and Mullally’s appointment in particular. Leo acknowledged that ‘new problems’ in their relationship had been added onto ‘historically divisive issues.’ But he nevertheless vowed to continue the tradition of past popes to continue to try to reunite the churches. Anglicans split from Rome in 1534, when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment.” (04/27/26)
https://apnews.com/article/pope-mullally-anglican-church-1bab05ed0b4224347fbd688d02fc6ee3
- MI: Feds order immediate inspection of Cheboygan Dam powerhouse
Source: SFGate
“Federal energy regulators have ordered immediate inspections of the Cheboygan Dam powerhouse and other Michigan dams that faced the risk of failure in this month’s historic flooding. Separately, state officials said they plan to inspect dams under their oversight to check for damage from the high waters that nearly overtook several impoundments last week amid spring snowmelt and heavy rains. After similar flooding in 1986, ‘a couple of dams failed weeks later because they sustained damage that didn’t get adequately assessed,’ Luke Trumble, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s dam safety chief, told Bridge Michigan. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a Thursday letter ordered Hom Paper XI LLC, the owner of the Cheboygan Dam powerhouse, to file a report no later than May 15 detailing how it will keep operational a powerhouse that was reactivated as an emergency measure April 17.” (04/27/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/feds-order-immediate-inspection-of-cheboygan-dam-22228290.php
- NPR Politics Podcast, 04/27/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“DOJ charges suspect in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.” (04/27/26)
- Rule by Secrecy – How Covert Regime Change Shaped Our World
Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes“The modern international order rests on a contradiction rarely examined in full daylight. Western states present themselves as guardians of international rules, democracy, and self-determination, yet the historical record of their behavior abroad tells a different story — one written not in treaties or speeches, but in classified cables, deniable operations, and shattered political systems. Covert Regime Change, first published in 2018, matters because it documents, with unusual rigor, how this contradiction became a governing method. Lindsey A. O’Rourke, Associate Professor at Boston College, does not ask whether covert intervention occasionally went wrong. She demonstrates that it became a routine instrument of statecraft, one whose predictable consequences were political collapse, mass violence, and long-term instability.” (04/27/26)
- Someone please tell America how this ends
Source: The Hill
by Harlan Ullman“During the second Iraq War, General David Petraeus famously asked in his book: ‘Tell Me How This Ends.’ No question could be more relevant to Operation Epic Fury and the ill-advised and potentially disastrous undeclared war against Iran. Since the Korean War, no administration other than George H.W. Bush’s learned the lesson that while the U.S. military was proficient at winning battles, the U.S. was incapable of winning wars. The first Iraq War and operations Desert Shield and Storm were textbook examples of how to respond to armed aggression. And those who criticized the first President Bush for not marching to Baghdad in 1991 found out how catastrophic that would have been when his son, President George W. Bush, did precisely that. At some stage, someone will write the definitive story of how this misguided and misjudged misapplication of American blood and treasure occurred.” (04/27/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5849801-trump-iran-negotiations-strategy/
- America Is Losing Its Allure for the World’s Migrants
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“A plaque on the Statue of Liberty features Emma Lazarus’s words urging the world to ‘give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ In his farewell address, then-President Ronald Reagan referred to the United States as a ‘shining city upon a hill’ and added that in his vision, ‘if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.’ But despite its continuing success, the U.S. is becoming a less attractive destination for people around the world. Currently-ascendant nativists want to close America’s doors and turn away the huddled masses, and the message is being received loud and clear.” (04/27/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/27/america-is-losing-its-allure-for-the-worlds-migrants/
- Operation Choke Point Choked
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“[I]n 2013 the Department of Justice and FDIC began pressing banks to cut off services to certain ‘high risk’ industries, like the gun industry. The initiative was called — with laudable candor — Operation Choke Point. … The Trump administration first sought to end this practice in 2017. But the urge to censor and punish viewpoints, including by debanking, resurged during the Biden administration. In 2025, President Trump, in his second shot at heading the executive branch, issued a new executive order directing federal agencies to review the situation and issue new regulations to protect customers. It was to be made clear to banks that despite the impression conveyed by other administrations, so-called ‘reputational risk’ — which boils down to hostility to certain views and enterprises — is not a warrant to fire customers.” [editor’s note: In the absence of binding contract, the only “warrant to fire customers” any business should need is its desire to not to business with them – TLK] (04/27/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/27/operation-choke-point-choked/
- Privatization’s the word
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“George Monbiot once said that I claimed to have invented the word ‘privatization.’ Nothing could be further from the truth, in common with many (if not most) of George’s claims. I have gone on record several times to point out that the word was in use before I was even born, which in my case is a very long time indeed. I did say that I preferred to spell it with a ‘z’ rather than an ‘s,’ as is do with most ‘ize’ endings. The word privatization, specifically the gerund ‘privatizing,’ first appeared in English in April 1923 in the New York Times. It was used within quotation marks in a translation of a German speech regarding the potential for American companies to purchase German state railroads. While that was the first recorded instance of the word itself, its development as a technical term followed a more complex path.” (04/7/26)
- Progressivism’s attack dog SPLC blows itself up
Source: Washington Times
by Robert Knight“‘He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.’ (Psalm 7:15) The Southern Poverty Law Center, famous for battling ‘hate groups’, helped stoke hate by funneling millions of dollars to the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other extremists and engaged in criminal activity to cover it up, according to the Justice Department. Announcing an indictment with 11 counts Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that from 2014 to 2023, the SPLC paid big bucks to leaders at the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Nation Motorcycle Club, the National Socialist Party of America and the American Front.” (04/27/26)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/apr/26/progressivisms-attack-dog-splc-blows/
- Lawmakers want to force Californians to take anti-hate speech training
Source: Expression
by Greg Gonzalez & Adam Goldstein“California lawmakers are considering two bills that would make ‘anti-hate speech training’ a requirement. Assembly Bill 1803 would require employers with five or more employees to incorporate such training into existing, already-mandated sexual harassment prevention programs. Under Assembly Bill 1578, a similar training would be mandated for all state and local elected officials. … But ‘hate speech’ includes speech protected by the First Amendment — speech the government has no business trying to snuff out with legal mandates. But also, it has no clear or consistent definition. Because of that vagueness, efforts to regulate ‘hate speech’ risk giving the government sweeping authority to suppress views it doesn’t like.” (04/27/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/lawmakers-want-to-force-californians
- Bad Vibes and the Trump Betrayal
Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker“Sometimes, something that seems too absurd to be taken seriously really should be taken seriously. As Paul Krugman argued a couple of days ago, Trump backers’ sense of betrayal by Trump may actually explain much of the negative attitude being reported by surveys of consumer sentiment.” (04/27/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/27/bad-vibes-and-the-trump-betrayal/
- What Happens if America Nationalizes AI?
Source: The Atlantic
by Matteo Wong & Lila Shroff“AI companies are beginning to entertain the possibility that they could cease to exist. This notion was, until recently, more theoretical: A couple of years ago, an ex-OpenAI employee named Leopold Aschenbrenner wrote a lengthy memo speculating that the U.S. government might soon take control of the industry. By 2026 or 2027, Aschenbrenner wrote, an ‘obvious question’ will be circling through the Pentagon and Congress: Do we need a government-led program for artificial general intelligence — an AGI Manhattan Project? He predicted that Washington would decide to go all in on such an effort.
Aschenbrenner may have been prescient.” (04/27/26) - Reining in the Pentagon: Can the Military-Industrial Beast Be Tamed?
Source: TomDispatch
by William D Hartung“Right at this moment, we are witnessing an unprecedented shift of resources from domestic investments in the United States to the military-industrial complex (aka the war machine). The only comparable period in our history was the buildup to World War II, when the United States confronted a powerful adversary in Nazi Germany with designs to control not just Europe, but the world. The current buildup is breathtaking in scope and will certainly prove devastating in its impact — not just on this country’s foreign and domestic policies but also on the economic prospects of average Americans. When, in 2023, my colleague Ben Freeman and I first conceived of our book, The Trillion Dollar War Machine, we viewed it in part as a cautionary tale about just how high the Pentagon budget might rise in the years to come (absent pushback from Congress and the taxpaying public).” (04/26/26)
- We Marinate in Conspiracy Today. Who’s to Blame? Partly, Donald Trump.
Source: The New Republic
by Michael Tomasky“With respect to the attempts on his life, Donald Trump is the victim of conspiracy-mongering. But somehow, it’s a little hard to feel too bad for him.” (04/27/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/209520/conspiracy-trump-correspondents-dinner-shooting
- Would Jacqueline Coleman bring sound education policy into the governor’s office?
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Gary W Houchens, John Garen, & Caleb O Brown“Coleman could be amenable to dismantling some regulatory barriers to education and employment, but her overall record raises serious questions about the policies she would bring to the Governor’s office.” (04/27/26)
- Continued Right-Wing Obtuseness on the Drug War
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“The obtuseness regarding the U.S. drug war that has long afflicted American conservatives never ceases to amaze me. I just cannot understand how intelligent people can be so steadfastly ignorant when it comes to this manifestly evil and immoral federal program. Yet another example of this strange phenomenon comes from a right-winger named Joshua Treviño, who serves in two conservative organizations — the America First Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Texas Public Policy Institute in Austin, Texas. I’m not sure how old Treviño is but …. He obviously is a smart man and he’s clearly old enough to be able to figure things out. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to the drug war, he remains steadfastly obtuse, just like almost every other right-winger in America.” (04/27/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/04/27/continued-right-wing-obtuseness-on-the-drug-war/
- The “No Kings” Movement Is Sheer Hypocrisy
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis“I’m convinced that the majority of people who take part in the ‘No Kings’ marches have absolutely no idea what they are doing. The Democratic masses are, sadly but inexcusably, nothing but ignorant, foolish sheep, being led to the slaughter by their ‘shepherds,’ who are wolves in wool. The sheep are taught to hate Donald Trump, and so, like Pavlov’s dogs, when the bell rings, they slobber and shout ‘Nazi!’ ‘No king!’ etc. Many of them probably actually believe Donald Trump wants to be king. It will never happen, even if Trump wanted it. You and I wouldn’t allow it. That’s what we rebelled against, remember. But while the Democratic masses are ignorant sheep, their ‘shepherds’ know exactly what they are doing and what they want.” (04/26/26)
- Mobocracy in America
Source: Law & Liberty
by Mark Pulliam“In the face of bourgeois Jacobin challenges, can the American experiment survive the twenty-first century?” (04/27/26)
- The Vaccine Safety Signal the Media Still Won’t Read
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Fraiman“The serious-adverse-event signal found in the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA Covid-19 vaccine trials has been in the peer-reviewed literature for nearly four years. Mainstream media outlets, on the rare occasions they address it, have treated it not as evidence to be weighed but as misinformation to be managed — dismissed on the authority of experts without relevant expertise, or simply ignored. A recent BBC Radio 4 broadcast is a near-textbook example. The broadcast aired on Everything Is Fake and Nobody Cares, a BBC Radio 4 series hosted by Jamie Bartlett, whose stated purpose is to ask why, in so much of modern life, fakery is no longer punished but rewarded. It is a reasonable question. The most direct answer the series has produced to date appears inside one of its own episodes.” (04/27/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-vaccine-safety-signal-the-media-still-wont-read/
- Those Fit to Rule
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“On the Search for Our Rulers, Descended from Above.” (04/27/26)
- Trump’s Epic Stupidity Could Kill Millions of People
Source: Beat the Press
by Dean Baker“Trump is both an incredibly ignorant person and incredibly dishonest person. As a result, when he claims ignorance of an obvious fact it is difficult to tell whether he really is as ignorant as he claims or he’s just lying. Such is the case with Trump’s claim that he didn’t know Iran might attack its neighbors and close the Strait of Hormuz in response to his joint attack with Israel. Trump insisted that none of the experts thought this possible when in effect just about every expert thought it was both possible and likely. Given Trump’s ignorance and propensity to lie, it is not easy to know whether Trump actually went to war totally unaware of the most likely consequences, or instead went to war anyhow, deciding that he didn’t care about the damage it would cause.” (04/27/26)
https://cepr.net/publications/trumps-ignorance-could-kill-millions/
- Trade Offensive
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler“Despite US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s warning that anyone seeking stronger trade ties with Beijing would be ‘cutting their own throat,’ Donald Trump’s weaponized tariffs are causing many countries to seek closer relations with China. There has been a barrage of diplomacy in the first few months of 2026, especially from European leaders concerned about the effects of Chinese competitiveness on domestic industries.” (04/27/26)
- Can Every Job Pay a Living Wage?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Antón Chamberlin“A job’s wage is not a measure of dignity — it’s a reflection of economic value. Confusing the two leads to policies that undermine opportunity.” (04/27/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/can-every-job-pay-a-living-wage/
- Reason Roundtable, 04/27/26
Source: Reason
“The Shooter’s Manifesto Was Uncomfortably Normal.” (04/27/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/27/the-shooters-manifesto-was-uncomfortably-normal/
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/27/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“COL. Lawrence Wilkerson – Did Iran or Trump Cave?” (04/27/26)
- Rising, 04/27/26
Source: The Hill
“Cole Tomas Allen manifesto revealed: WHCD suspect motivated by Epstein files?” (04/27/26)
- Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 04/27/26
Source: Politico
“Security under scrutiny at WHCD and a royal visit to the White House.” (04/27/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/27/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Why The Debt Cannot Be Ignored!” (04/27/26)
- This War Is Going To Starve People
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Caitlin and Tim discuss the global consequences the US-Israeli war on Iran is set to have on the weakest members of the poorest countries, the latest Trump assassination attempt, BBC headline shenanigans, and more.” (04/27/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/27/podcast-this-war-is-going-to-starve-people/